(Pubblico in forma più ampia e leggermente modificata questa intervista a Douglas Dunn, uscita ne Il giornale di Vicenza il 5 maggio del 2009)
di Fabio Giaretta
Da quarant’anni Douglas Dunn, uno dei più importanti poeti inglesi contemporanei, cerca di catturare con i suoi versi la musica di ciò che accade. Quello che subito colpisce nelle sue poesie è la totale apertura dialogante nei confronti del reale e delle sue caleidoscopiche manifestazioni. Nonostante il suo valore, questo poeta è però ancora poco noto in Italia. Lo dimostra il fatto che l’unico libro che possiamo leggere in italiano, curato e tradotto da Marco Fazzini, è la preziosa raccolta di testi scelti Long Ago (Lugo: Sloth Editions, 2003). Douglas Dunn
We interviewed with the collaboration of Marco Fazzini and we thank them.
When he realized they could become a writer?
I always wanted to be a writer but I realized that it can become a few years after the publication of my first book of Terry Street in 1969. Since the late sixties I then lived for about twenty years of writing by the employee magazine, the reviewer, writing short stories ...
She was born and lives in Scotland. What are the traits that characterize more specifically Scottish his poetry?
I do not feel very characteristic as a writer Scottish. I aspire to be eclectic.
His poems always have a very strong charge realistic but also much scope is left to the imagination. What relationship is created between these two dimensions?
Many times the details of daily life trigger the imagination but also the spiritual dimension of life and writing. So these two are very interconnected.
There are some common traits that characterize all of the collections he has written so far?
The desire to draw poetry from what's happening, understand the music of what happens.
She has always considered the poet Philip Larkin's mentor. Can you tell us how it has influenced the his life and his poetry?
has undoubtedly had a great influence. It 'been a friend with me who behaved with great dignity. He had a big influence not only on me but also on the British landscape, while living, like me, on the edge of the literary world. One thing I admired about him was the very sense of humor. I got this feature in many of my collections, though unfortunately the first thing that gets lost in translation.
Which authors have most influenced you? There are some Italian poets among his literary models?
Shakespeare certainly. Some authors medieval Scotland. When I was a student I was very influenced by Andrew Marvell, John Milton, Robert Burns. I have read and reread Auden, my copy of his selected poems is destroyed by what I've browsed through the years.
Among the Italians that I admire very much Leopardi also translated.
How it came into contact with the poetry of Leopardi?
E 'was a coincidence. When Cossiga was president of the republic, was to visit Scotland for the Edinburgh University awarded him an honorary degree. E 'gave rise to the idea of \u200b\u200btranslating Leopardi, who was the favorite poet of Cossiga, to various Scottish poets. So I was contacted by some texts. From there I became interested in the poetry of Leopardi I liked particolarmente. Però c’è stata una crisi proprio nei giorni in cui Cossiga doveva venire in Scozia quindi per ironia della sorte non è venuto a prendere né la laurea né il volume con le poesie di Leopardi.
In Elegies, raccolta poetica del 1985 incentrata sulla malattia e sulla morte della sua prima moglie, Lesley Balfour, la reticenza presente nei suoi libri precedenti ha lasciato posto ad un maggior denudamento, il suo io non appare più celato…
Se sei un poeta devi avere il coraggio dell’onestà nei confronti di ciò che ti è accaduto, altrimenti resta in te qualcosa di represso. Se non lo fai uscire, cessi di essere un vero poeta.
Il libro oggi in Gran Bretagna is considered a classic. How did you experience the great success of this collection?
I've very interested in the success of this collection. For me it made the difference. I know doctors who use the book for medical purposes and they give to their patients. I still, after so many years, several letters from readers who thank me for writing it. For me it was a way to remember the love I have experienced. When I learned that my wife's parents also endorsed this I knew I had done the right thing.
Terry Street, the street of a proletarian district of Hull where she lived for a time, is the protagonist of his first poetry collection. Since today has been dismantled, we can say that, somehow, his poetry has saved? In truth
Terry Street was falling apart and then you went to old age. It was still a place degraded and unpleasant. So I would say that my book rather than save Terry Street has given an extra push to go away.
people who lived in Terry Street were not happy of my poems. I among others was not the place, I was a Scotsman transplanted to England, specifically in Hull, so I was always considered an outsider. I remember a newspaper article came from a very ironic title: the fame has arrived at Terry Street, like it or not. Why in
his works, has gradually increased the severity metric?
I love the verse and, especially in the last twenty years during which I was a professor at the university, I loved the fact that you have free time to devote to it. The poems, as well as to target the content must also have a thickness linked to the verse.
What is the purpose for her poetry in contemporary society?
First, the language should help to combat the uncertainty and the collapse that increasingly characterize. Some people think that poetry can be a substitute for religion. I do not think it's a substitute, but has the same function because of religion deals with the truth. How religion can make life more meaningful. These ideas do not help to write some good poems, but should accompany every true poet.
In Italy as regards the poem there is a paradoxical situation: many write poetry, but few read it. This also applies to Britain?
Probably the same happens in Britain. I judge a poetry prize and I arrived about 1500 texts to be examined ... And it's a minor prize. There are tens of thousands of people who graduate but few buy poetry books. Perhaps we should ask whether there is something wrong in poetry rather than in those who do not buy books. Adrian Mitchell, an English poet who died recently, said that most people ignore the poets because most of the poets ignore the people.
We interviewed with the collaboration of Marco Fazzini and we thank them.
When he realized they could become a writer?
I always wanted to be a writer but I realized that it can become a few years after the publication of my first book of Terry Street in 1969. Since the late sixties I then lived for about twenty years of writing by the employee magazine, the reviewer, writing short stories ...
She was born and lives in Scotland. What are the traits that characterize more specifically Scottish his poetry?
I do not feel very characteristic as a writer Scottish. I aspire to be eclectic.
His poems always have a very strong charge realistic but also much scope is left to the imagination. What relationship is created between these two dimensions?
Many times the details of daily life trigger the imagination but also the spiritual dimension of life and writing. So these two are very interconnected.
There are some common traits that characterize all of the collections he has written so far?
The desire to draw poetry from what's happening, understand the music of what happens.
She has always considered the poet Philip Larkin's mentor. Can you tell us how it has influenced the his life and his poetry?
has undoubtedly had a great influence. It 'been a friend with me who behaved with great dignity. He had a big influence not only on me but also on the British landscape, while living, like me, on the edge of the literary world. One thing I admired about him was the very sense of humor. I got this feature in many of my collections, though unfortunately the first thing that gets lost in translation.
Which authors have most influenced you? There are some Italian poets among his literary models?
Shakespeare certainly. Some authors medieval Scotland. When I was a student I was very influenced by Andrew Marvell, John Milton, Robert Burns. I have read and reread Auden, my copy of his selected poems is destroyed by what I've browsed through the years.
Among the Italians that I admire very much Leopardi also translated.
How it came into contact with the poetry of Leopardi?
E 'was a coincidence. When Cossiga was president of the republic, was to visit Scotland for the Edinburgh University awarded him an honorary degree. E 'gave rise to the idea of \u200b\u200btranslating Leopardi, who was the favorite poet of Cossiga, to various Scottish poets. So I was contacted by some texts. From there I became interested in the poetry of Leopardi I liked particolarmente. Però c’è stata una crisi proprio nei giorni in cui Cossiga doveva venire in Scozia quindi per ironia della sorte non è venuto a prendere né la laurea né il volume con le poesie di Leopardi.
In Elegies, raccolta poetica del 1985 incentrata sulla malattia e sulla morte della sua prima moglie, Lesley Balfour, la reticenza presente nei suoi libri precedenti ha lasciato posto ad un maggior denudamento, il suo io non appare più celato…
Se sei un poeta devi avere il coraggio dell’onestà nei confronti di ciò che ti è accaduto, altrimenti resta in te qualcosa di represso. Se non lo fai uscire, cessi di essere un vero poeta.
Il libro oggi in Gran Bretagna is considered a classic. How did you experience the great success of this collection?
I've very interested in the success of this collection. For me it made the difference. I know doctors who use the book for medical purposes and they give to their patients. I still, after so many years, several letters from readers who thank me for writing it. For me it was a way to remember the love I have experienced. When I learned that my wife's parents also endorsed this I knew I had done the right thing.
Terry Street, the street of a proletarian district of Hull where she lived for a time, is the protagonist of his first poetry collection. Since today has been dismantled, we can say that, somehow, his poetry has saved? In truth
Terry Street was falling apart and then you went to old age. It was still a place degraded and unpleasant. So I would say that my book rather than save Terry Street has given an extra push to go away.
people who lived in Terry Street were not happy of my poems. I among others was not the place, I was a Scotsman transplanted to England, specifically in Hull, so I was always considered an outsider. I remember a newspaper article came from a very ironic title: the fame has arrived at Terry Street, like it or not. Why in
his works, has gradually increased the severity metric?
I love the verse and, especially in the last twenty years during which I was a professor at the university, I loved the fact that you have free time to devote to it. The poems, as well as to target the content must also have a thickness linked to the verse.
What is the purpose for her poetry in contemporary society?
First, the language should help to combat the uncertainty and the collapse that increasingly characterize. Some people think that poetry can be a substitute for religion. I do not think it's a substitute, but has the same function because of religion deals with the truth. How religion can make life more meaningful. These ideas do not help to write some good poems, but should accompany every true poet.
In Italy as regards the poem there is a paradoxical situation: many write poetry, but few read it. This also applies to Britain?
Probably the same happens in Britain. I judge a poetry prize and I arrived about 1500 texts to be examined ... And it's a minor prize. There are tens of thousands of people who graduate but few buy poetry books. Perhaps we should ask whether there is something wrong in poetry rather than in those who do not buy books. Adrian Mitchell, an English poet who died recently, said that most people ignore the poets because most of the poets ignore the people.
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BIOGRAPHY: Douglas Dunn, poet, novelist and essayist, Scotland, was born in 1942 in Inchinnan in Renfrewshire. He received a BA in English literature at the University of Hull, where he taught. He taught English at St. Andrews University, becoming director of the Scottish Studies Institute. Member of the Royal Society of Literature in 2003 was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire. La sua vasta produzione in versi, che lo consacra come uno degli autori più importanti della poesia inglese contemporanea, ha inizio con la silloge Terry Street (1969), premiata con lo Scottish Arts Council Book Award e con il Somerset Maugham Award. Seguono The happier life (1972) e Love or Nothing (1974), con cui l'autore riceve lo Scottish Arts Council Book Award e il Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Escono successivamente le raccolte Barbarians (1979) e St Kilda's Parliament (1981), che vince lo Hawthornden Prize. È del 1982 il poema Europa's lover. La silloge intitolata Elegies, edita nel 1985, è uno dei suoi capolavori, per la quale gli sono conferiti il Whitbread Book of the Year, il Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, lo Hawthornden Prize e il Cholmondeley Award. Successivamente vengono pubblicati i volumi di poesie Northlight (1988) e Dante's drum-kit (1993). Nel 2000 escono le raccolte poetiche The Donkey's Ears e The Year's Afternoon. Marco Fazzini ha curato e tradotto in italiano una selezione di testi dell'autore nel florilegio Long ago e altre poesie scelte 1969-2000 (Edizioni del Bradipo, Lugo di Romagna 2003).dunn si è dedicato anche alla narrativa, componendo due libri di racconti: Secret Villages (1985) e Girlfriends and Boyfriends (1995). È autore di saggi (Under the influence: douglas dunn on Philip Larkin, 1987), curatore di numerose antologie e traduttore dal francese (Andromaque di Racine, 1990). Collabora con vari giornali come the "Glasgow Herald, the New Yorker and the Times Literary Supplement and has written comedy for radio and television.
